Boston Marathon 2024: Everything you need to know about the annual world class event

The Boston Marathon 2024 will be held on April 15. This will be the 128th edition of the event as the Boston Athletic Association has organized it annually since 1897. It also hosted a virtual alternative which was established after the race had to be cancelled in 2020.

The Boston Marathon started in 1897 as a local event due to the success of the first marathon event in the 1896 Summer Olympics. Since then, the Boston Marathon has been one of the most prominent marathon events in the world. It is traditionally held on Patriot's Day, the third Monday of April.

The event attracts a huge crowd, making it one of New England's most-viewed sporting spectacles. There are various viewing spots along the course of the race track. The race also has various divisions for the specially-abled such as the wheelchair division and the visually impaired division.

The event starts at Hopkinton in Middlesex County and ends at Copley Square in Boston. There will be buses to drop off the participants, who will have to show their respective bib numbers to board, at the starting point at Hopkinton.

The registration for the marathon was already completed last September. All applicants had received a notice in their respective emails after the registration. The registration window will not be open anymore as the maximum strength of the marathon has already been reached.

The event will be live-streamed as well as telecasted on television networks. The WCVB Channel 5 will cover the Boston Marathon on the race day. WCVB, WMUR, and WMTW will live-stream the event on their respective digital platforms and applications.

Famous names in the Boston Marathon 2024

A record 33,000 athletes had registered for the Marathon of 2024. Among those 33,000, only 22,000 have been accepted for the race. More than 600 participants in the 2024 race have completed the marathon in its previous editions.

Famous names in the race will include Marcel Hug from Switzerland who won the marathon wheelchair division a record six times and Sisay Lemma from Ethiopia who recently ran the fourth-fastest marathon ever.

The winner of the event two years in a row, Evans Chebat from Kenya will also be present in the race as he hopes to add another title to his arsenal. Hellen Obiri from Kenya, who won the women's event last year, will also be gracing the event this time around.

The prize money for the event is a huge one with the winner of the open division receiving a whopping amount of $150,000. The winner of the wheelchair division and the master's division will take home $40,000 and $5000, respectively.